After a long day of travel (3 planes, layover in LAX and Dallas and 1 taxi) we made it to Cambalache in Polanco to have dinner with the Castañeda family.
Cambalache is an Argentinean churrasqueria with multiple locations in Mexico DF. It’s been one of my favorite steakhouses in the world and I’ve had the opportunity to now visit it like 4 times (given the fact that I live like 3,000 miles away from it). We had a typical fish from Acapulcoand all the pacific of Mexico(forgot the name but it was so good!!), small intestines, chorizo, and of course arrachera. The meat is so tender, flavorful, and juicy! What a great way to start the trip! [singlepic id=1293 w=200 float=left] [singlepic id=1292 w=200 float=right]
I was definitively scared of traveling to Mexico first. A few days before the trip, I saw a headline of bombings not only in the north of Mexico but also in Acapulco and other cities. Taking a cab to the estacion del norte today the fear went away. When you really think about it, dangerous things can happen anywhere at anytime. Claudia’s family was sharing a story during dinner about credit fraud. Here in Mexico, when you pay at a restaurant with a credit card, the waiter brings the wireless terminal to charge you in front of your eyes. This is to avoid the waiter taking the credit card away, charging a million things (or giving you a whole different credit card with the same bank) or any other type of fraud. However, they said that the place where they’ve experienced credit card fraud was in New York City… go figure. Point being, you never know when bad things can happen …
[singlepic id=1294 w=250 float=left] Our first bus ride (Primera Plus) was a great surprise. We called in the morning to various companies for information on how to get to San Miguel de Allende. At 10 am we found out there is a bus leaving from DF at 11:15 am and we rushed to get a cab (thanks Claudia!) and sang the song: “Chofer chofer, mas velocidad, metale la pata y vera como le va!” .. Claudia said it would take us 45-60 minutes to get to the bus station and we had left her house at 10:15 am. We got to the bus stop at 10:40 am. The song must have helped!
We get to the terminal and everyone is smiling. We buy our one-way ticket to San Miguel, get searched (full body search and all but no molesting like there is with those TSA folks in SFO), and get on the bus. What a nice surprise to find great comfy seats [a 100 times better than an economy seat on a plane], a lunch, and wifi on the bus! All for $24/person! Let’s enjoy it while we can as I’m sure we’ll get to experience the equivalent of the chicken bus eventually!